


Hour of the Wolf

by borrowedphrases



Category: Kamen Rider Zero-One
Genre: Asexual Relationship, Canon Non-Binary Character, Other, Past Sharing a Body, Robot/Human Relationships, if you see any spelling errors no you don't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:08:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29389602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/borrowedphrases/pseuds/borrowedphrases
Summary: Every wolf needs their pack, even when it's only the two of you.
Relationships: Fuwa Isamu/Naki
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13
Collections: Toku Romance Exchange





	Hour of the Wolf

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hikaristudio](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikaristudio/gifts).



It's been a month and he still can't sleep the whole night through. Some nights it's the relentless tossing and turning, searching for a position where his legs stop wanting to run and run and run until his lungs burn and his heart slams against the cage of his ribs. Some nights it's the oppressive weight of his blankets and the tangle of his sheets holding him down and down and down until he feels like he can barely breathe. Some nights it's just too quiet.

It's the quiet that he hates the most. Those nights where the silence feels like a living thing, its hot breath on the back of his neck making all the hairs on his body stand on end. It's like a shiver down his spine, a mix of anger and fear that he doesn't know how to describe even to himself, forget trying to explain to his doctor or his therapist or any of his friends. It's not a silence that even makes sense. It's not quiet, not properly, he can hear the steady growl and intermittent howl of the city beyond his apartment. He can hear the ticking of his watch where it rests on his nightstand and the hum of the fridge from the kitchenette. He can hear his racing pulse echoing inside his own head, and yet... and yet.

Fuwa throws the covers off and just barely wins a battle with the sheets for custody of his legs. He sets his naked feet on the cold floor and feels that aching, itching want to run again. His toes curl as he presses the balls of his feet down firm, arches stretching as his heels lift off the wood. He fights down the need to get up and go, to rush out into the open night and not stop moving until he finds... whatever it is that he's missing, whatever it is that will make him feel like himself again.

↭

It is easy enough for them to integrate into society, to adapt to the social expectations and performance requirements of holding a job. They know they are different, different in that their coworkers treat them differently than they do each other. This does not bother them, they still have their coworker's respect, and enough trust that everyone is able to perform as they should, both out in the field and behind the desk. Things are... acceptable for them. Adequate enough for them to function at near optimal levels.

Functionality is not quite so simple to calculate when they are alone, when the working day has concluded and their coworkers have returned to homes and families and lives. It is proving to be more complicated than expected for them to find things to keep themself occupied with, when one does not eat nor sleep, when one resides by themself. Hobbies quickly lose the hold of their interest, learned and mastered and moved-on from, sometimes in the span of a single evening. They could power down for the hours between working shifts, but that seems unsatisfactory to the point of being worrisome. There is a want for... something. A want that lacks proper quantification. Despite functioning at peak capability, they know that this longing is preventing them from achieving truly optimal functionality.

Naki knows the way to that building so perfectly they can find it while running at their most passive levels, what they believe humans would classify as _zoning out_ , though Naki is still quite aware of their surroundings and the movements of their form. They still do not understand why they have come back here, even as their feet found the memory of the way, even as their fingers reflectively input the code for the door, even as they walked with purpose the the elevator doors. They realize that they do not know why these memory files have not been cleared, it is not like they have needed them for many weeks now. Even as they reflect on this disturbing realization, they find themself moving through the building, up the five floors, and down the hallway to the door that was once as good as theirs.

↭

The door opens between the pair, startling neither, even with their mutual uncertainty over which one of them opened it. Fuwa stands inside his home, shirtless and bed-haired, pajama pants loose around his hips. He looks sleepy, looks sleepless, dark shadows heavy beneath his eyes. Naki stands in the hallway, neatly dressed, oversized coat draped over their shoulders. They feel as low on power as Fuwa looks, they don't remember when they last powered down for a rest. Neither says a word as Fuwa moves to let Naki inside, as the door clicks softly closed behind them.

Naki is the first to move, reaching for one of Fuwa's hands only to stop halfway when they find that their fingers are vibrating at an alarmingly high frequency. Fuwa reaches across the rest of the space between them, taking Naki's hand in his and gently turning it over, both palms facing up with Naki's resting over his. The glide of Fuwa's thumb as he traces Naki's knuckles corrects the malfunction, and Naki, fingers now steadied, turns their hand back over to close their fingers around Fuwa's.

It's such a simple moment, such a small gesture. But it's trust and want and understanding. Fuwa finds his heels coming back down to rest on the floor. Things feel... still. At rest. Filled with a peace that neither has felt for much longer than many weeks ago. Naki suddenly knows exactly why their programs brought them here, here-

Here. Right here where they both want to be.

Naki is the one who breaks the silence with a quietly muttered _welcome home._ 1 Fuwa smiles. He wordlessly asks with a cautious tug if Naki will come in closer, and Naki consents by just as wordlessly stepping into the space between his arms. Naki's hand now rests over the steady beat of Fuwa's circulatory process, finding it in perfect sync with the internal beat that runs the process of Naki's circuits. Fuwa holds them close, feeling their mechanized warmth all the way down to his bones. He rests his chin on their head, draws in a long, slow breath, and then exhales a soft _I'm home._ 2

↭

Both are seated on the bed and Fuwa's arms are still around Naki, whose hand is still pressed firm against Fuwa's chest. There's still the growl and howl of the city just outside the window, still the ticking of Fuwa's watch on the nightstand, but his legs no longer ache to run and run and run anymore. Now he feels like he can breathe.

Naki feels when Fuwa yawns, long and heavy, and they draw back, but not away. They tell Fuwa that he requires a recharge cycle, that he should rest, that they will stil be here when his cycle completes. They take it as sign of affection when Fuwa laughs, confusion only creeping in when Fuwa then pulls them down with him, when he draws his rumpled blanket up over them as well.

Fuwa tells them that they can power down too. That they should, in fact. That _you probably need it_ and he's not wrong. He promises that he'll reboot them when he wakes up, and Naki tells him that they _trust you to do so_ even without the promise. Naki waits until Fuwa's breathing rhythm has slowed and his arms have relaxed around them before they start their own sequence of powering down into their idle- into their sleep mode, confident that Fuwa will still be with them when they come back online.

**Author's Note:**

> _"It's the time between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning. You can't sleep, and all you can see is the troubles and the problems and the ways that your life should've gone but didn't. **All you can hear is the sound of your own heart.** "_  
> -[The Hour of the Wolf](http://a1bert.kapsi.fi/Quotes/NoRobots/B5/067.html)
> 
> ###### Footootnotes
> 
> **1.** おかえり (Okaeri). [return]
> 
> **2.** ただいま (Tadaima). [return]


End file.
